Infotheek Group acquires Centralpoint.nl online shop

European IT giant makes major move in e-commerce

Leiden, 20 June 2017 – Infotheek Group is acquiring online IT service provider Centralpoint.nl. With this acquisition, Infotheek, based in the Dutch city of Leiden, will become market leader in the Benelux with annual revenues of over 700 million euros and roughly 900 employees in 14 countries. The Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) still has to approve the acquisition.

Centralpoint.nl was founded by Brian Speelman in 2001 and has since grown to become the biggest online provider of commercial IT services in the Netherlands, generating revenues of €120 million. Infotheek is acquiring the shares from Greenfield Capital Partners and Brian Speelman. The purchase price is not known.

European market The acquisition will enable Infotheek Group to compete with the top IT players in Europe. It is also in line with the consolidation trend that has been evident in the European IT market for some years now. The acquisition of Centralpoint.nl will provide Infotheek with cutting-edge in-house experience and expertise in the area of online sales. This will benefit the corporate client portfolio of the recently acquired firm of Scholten Awater and also anchor this knowledge in the Netherlands. The development capabilities of Centralpoint.nl will also strengthen Infotheek Group’s ability to continue innovating and to provide its large corporate clients with more effective support in areas such as personalised portals and automated purchasing processes.

‘With this acquisition, we are continuing along the path that we decided on together with our shareholder Altor’, explains Jordy Kool, CEO of Infotheek Group. ‘With the online knowledge and experience that we are acquiring, we will be able to offer our shared client base a broader online access to circular IT. It will also allow us to reach a larger target group and so extend the usable lifetime of even more IT products. The acquisition will result in the creation of a major player in the national as well as European IT market with a strong and sustainable future.’

Leveraging expertise Brian Speelman, CEO of Centralpoint.nl: ‘Since it was first started in 2001, Centralpoint.nl has used its own resources to develop a very user-friendly online ordering platform for the sale of IT products in the commercial market. The acquisition of Infotheek Group will allow us to also leverage our expertise in the area of e-commerce in all the market segments in which Infotheek Group is active. We are confident that this will enable us to provide our collective client base with an even better and broader range of services.

One of the most important strategic assets of the company is its ability to respond effectively to changes in purchasing behaviour. Kool: ‘We view this merger as the perfect formula to ensure ongoing innovation and accelerate our organic growth.’ Speelman: ‘We will continue to invest in efficient ordering processes, fast deliveries, innovative services, and optimum support from our online-, field-, and telesales- teams in order to provide our shared client base with an even better customer experience.